Business Development Manager - Defence

Valarian: A New Era of Sovereign Intelligence

Valarian is a dual use technology company building critical tools to safeguard the future in an era of evolving global security challenges. Backed by a Series A funding round of $50m led by NEA, we are rethinking security beyond traditional military domains to address asymmetric threats that impact our technological advantage, economic strength, and democratic institutions. We provide the control infrastructure that allows government and regulated enterprise to put frontier-class AI to work safely.

We are bringing a frontier AI experience inside secure boundaries for the first time. Our technology supports mission critical workflows across government, healthcare, and enterprise, including:

Scaling open-weight models without external inference endpoints.

Putting frontier class AI to work across organisations through partnerships with other leading AI startups such as Perplexity.

Increasing operational resiliency for air gapped, on prem, and cloud based systems.

Securing intellectual property and maintaining auditability for high stakes enterprise environments.

Facilitating secure information flow during disaster response, M&A due diligence, and privileged legal communications.

We’ve only scratched the surface. Built in Britain by veterans of the Ministry of Defence, British Forces, Darktrace, and elite engineering backgrounds, we are driven by a shared mission to safeguard western democracy . Whether you join our London HQ or our wider global organisation, you’ll be part of a collaborative, high performing team creating the cutting edge software and infrastructure that defines the frontier of enterprise AI.

The Role

As a Business Development Manager - Defence at Valarian, you will define and execute our defence market strategy with a strong focus on building and protecting our commercial ecosystem across government, primes, integrators and end users. You’ll be responsible for securing how our organisation operates in the defence market day-to-day: from account mapping and stakeholder engagement, to bid and capture management, to compliance and assurance across systems.

This is a hands-on leadership role combining strategy, architecture and execution. You’ll report directly to the Head of Delivery, and work closely with Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance and Leadership to embed defence readiness into everything we build, while evolving our compliance posture across UK Government Security Classifications and relevant assurance frameworks.

What you’ll do:

Oversee and execute Valarian’s defence business development strategy

Build and mature our defence market posture, including security clearances, UK Government Security Classifications and relevant assurance requirements

Design and implement a scalable go-to-market approach across government, primes, integrators and end users

Work with Product and Engineering to ensure our offering is positioned and built for defence customers

Build and maintain BD playbooks, standards and processes for defence sales

Lead opportunity management, account mapping and pipeline generation

Own bid and proposal development, capture management and responses to RFIs/RFPs

Develop and manage relationships with primes, system integrators, government stakeholders and industry bodies

Manage audits, certifications and engagement with external assessors and procurement teams

Set metrics and reporting for pipeline, win rates and market penetration

Hire, develop and lead a small, high-performing defence BD team

What you’ll bring:

Proven experience leading in BD, defence, government or highly regulated B2G/B2B environments

Deep knowledge of defence procurement and how to win in it

Hands-on experience with capture management, bid and proposal development

Experience managing an ecosystem of primes, integrators, government stakeholders and partners

Practical experience with defence assurance and compliance, including UK Government Security Classifications and procurement frameworks

Strong understanding of account mapping, stakeholder engagement and long sales cycles

Experience using CRM and pipeline management tools

Track record of building go-to-market capability from scratch in high-growth environments

Ability to balance compliance and security requirements with speed to market

Excellent stakeholder management and communication across technical, commercial and executive audiences

Experience building or scaling BD/sales teams, or readiness to do so

Focus on real outcomes, not box-ticking

Security Clearance is preferable, but not essential

Background is secondary to mindset. We want someone prepared to hustle, learn the defence landscape fast, and own outcomes. The successful candidate could be from any background.

Benefits

Our benefits are designed to ensure our employees feel taken care of and are proud to be a part of the Valarian team. We are committed to consistently enhancing our benefit package, taking into account the overall well-being and needs of our teammates. Here are the key benefits accessible to all employees at Valarian Technologies:

Equity – because you have the right to own what you’re building

A competitive salary – because we value your unique skills

Employer pension contributions – because you deserve a secure future

Private health insurance - because your health is important to us

Hybrid work setup – because everyone has different needs

Gym memberships - because staying active fuels productivity

Rewarding company retreats and meetups that respect your work/life balance – because we love getting to know each other

Life at Valarian

Our culture is built on inclusivity, compassion and flexibility – we want everyone to be empowered to achieve their goals at Valarian.

The work we do is vital, but so are the connections that make it happen. We thrive on the shared energy, spontaneous conversations, and mutual trust built when we spend time together. We operate on an office first hybrid model, regularly gathering in our London office to support one another and collaborate.